My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Friends from Unexpected Places

Chapter 8

Mirror’s Edge

Young Derpy woke up to find herself staring at blackness.

“What? What’s going on? Where am I? eTu`nes? eTu`nes, you there?” she called out in fear.

“I’m right here.” eTu`nes exclaimed, holding his ears. “You don’t need to yell.”

“What happened with the Leviathan? Where are we?” she worriedly asked.

“We’re still at the lake and the Leviathan…” eTu`nes looked to the water, or rather a specific red spot. “… has been taken care of.”

“okay, but why can’t I see anything?”

eTu`nes sighed deeply. He really didn’t want to explain this. “after the battle, I looked you over. You were badly injured, especially in the eye area. Had to bandage them. Not sure if they’ll end up okay or not. You seeing darkness is not really a good sign.”

Derpy looked around. A faint red glow entered her vision. “did you start a fire, cause I’m seeing a red glow.”

eTu`nes looked between her and the fire. “well, that’s a good sign. Guess you’re not going to be completely blind.”

“Thank goodness for that.” Derpy chuckled. She laid down in what she’s hoping is grass and laid her head on her hooves. eTu`nes rested his head on his forepaws and closed his eyes.

“eTu`nes? What did that Leviathan mean by you being forsaken?” Derpy asked.

eTu`nes sighed. He didn’t want to talk about it. “it was nothing, okay? Let’s just leave it at that.” he grudgingly sighed.

“okay.” Derpy somberly replied. “Then answer me this: why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you tell me you knew a way out all along instead of leading me around in circles?”

eTu`nes didn’t want to answer that either but he had to give her something. “because… because you were the first… THING to ever care about me. The first one to help me. The first one to care for me. The first one to… to even care.”

“what about your parents?”

“Pbbt. They don’t care. They never cared. They treated me worse then the others. That beaten state you found me in? that was done by my parents.” Derpy gasped in fear, bringing one of her hooves to her mouth. “what kind of parent does that to their child? Why?” he asked himself, not fully understanding why this would happen to him.

“I don’t know.” Derpy responded. She wasn’t sure how to comfort him with this. Using where she heard his voice and the position of the fire’s glow in her bandaged eyes, she was able to find him and curl up beside him, causing eTu`nes to blush a little. “but… I know that you aren’t a bad guy. You’re just misunderstood.”

“Thanks Derpy.” eTu`nes smiled. Derpy laid down and fell asleep beside him. eTu`nes waited till he was sure she was asleep before saying… “and… there’s also another reason why I lied to you.” he somberly said. He knew she couldn’t hear him but he didn’t care. For once, his life was looking up. He fell asleep and let the night roll over them both.

20 years later…

Something groaned in pain in the bushes near the cave where Jax and the Changelings fought. It moved around for a moment but stopped afterwards.

Ash walked though town, heading for Fluttershy’s place while looking though a book titled ‘101 ways to please your special someone.’ he just ignored all the ones that weren’t human related and changed the word Pony to Human.

Spike noticed him while carrying some scrolls and headed on over. “hey Ash. What’cha reading?” he asked.

Ash flipped back to the cover. “101 ways to please your special someone.”

“101 ways to… you have a special someone in your little group?” Spike asked, a little confused.

“yeah. Sora. She and me have been going steady for awhile but we’re keeping it a secret. Don’t want anyone else to know.”

“why?”

Ash closed the book and scratched the back of his head. “Well… it’s mostly because of Jax. She has this crush for me and we figured that if she found out… well… it won’t end well.”

“well, I can agree with her on that. Crush’s are harsh.” Spike agreed.

“how so?” Ash asked with curiosity.

“you know the pony you’re staying with? Rarity?”

“The Fashionista?”

“Yeah. I kinda have a crush on her.”

“oh.”

“but I don’t think it would work out. I mean, she’s a Pony. And I’m a Dragon. And a baby at that. How am I supposed to tell her I have a crush for her?”

Ash thought for a moment. “well, you could just tell her.”

“Pbbt. Yeah right. Tried that once and it didn’t really work out well.” Spike said, thinking back to him going ballistic with the greed and growing to Godzilla size.

“huh?”

“it’s nothing. It’s nothing. But… I’m worried how she’ll take it if I told her. Will she except it or just run me over?”

“Well, you’re never know till you try, right?” Ash asked, patting the dragon on the back. Spike partially nodded in agreement. “listen, I’ll even help you out. What do you say?”

“Really? How?”

Ash showed off the book’s title. “with 101 ways.”

“okay. Follow me to your new home, my sweets.” Fluttershy said. She walked backward though a forest, leading a mother duck and her ducklings to their new home with Bahamut flying escort.

“So… let me see if I got this straight…” Bahamut said, flying upside-down and trying to piece together the fine elements of the world. “…the animals are completely dependant on Ponies? They don’t do anything for themselves?” he asked with his fine british accent.

“well, they do some things for themselves but other times, like being sick or injured or finding a new place to live, they need out help.” Fluttershy explained, not taking her eye off the ducks.

“Ah. Right. Well, that would explain it, I suppose.” he droned, looking at the audience. “but I still find it confusing. I mean, why are they dependant on you? Why do your kind look after them?”

“I don’t know. It was just the world I was born into. You should asked Twilight or Princess Luna about that. They know everything there is to know about our world.”

Bahamut flipped around and flew right-side up. “Yeah, but Luna didn’t seem to be in a pleasant mood when we met her. Think someone skimped on her cake or something.” FS chuckled at the joke. Bahamut scratched the back of his head. “stop it. You’re gonna make me blush.”

“sorry.”

“Ah, it’s okay. Everyone deserves a good laugh now and again.” Bahamut gasped in fear. “oh dear lord, I sound like Pinkie.”

“Least you don’t act like Pinkie.”

“good point. Whew.” Bahamut pretended to wipe sweat from his brow.

“okay, take it up.” Satoshi told a couple of Pegasi as they took a piece of the rigging up to the top of the 1st mast. “over to the right.” he said to the duo. They moved the rigging to the right of the mast. “little bit more.” they moved more to the right. “Little bit more…. Teeny bit more….” now they were getting annoyed. “And there. Perfect.” the Pegasi tied the rigging to that part of the mast and flew off to another part of the vessel.

“way this is going, we’ll probably be done in half the time.” Satoshi said, walking up this blueprints which Rainbow was also looking at. He pulled up a stool and looked it over. “but… we matter until we get that part.” he muttered as he took a sip of his drink though a straw.

“What part?” Dash asked, taking a drink out of her juice.

Satoshi spit the straw out of his mouth. “this part.” he said, pointing to a engine like component. “it’s what we use to go from world to world. Even it Orion get’s working again, we won’t leave this world without that engine. And before you ask, that giant monster took it when we first arrived here. Devious little bugger. And smart, I‘ll give him that.”

“can’t you just make another one?”

“not possible. That engine was created by Gabriëlle and his kind using methods no one can replicate. Best chance we have is getting it back.”

“And not knowing where that monster is could be a problem, right?” R.D. asked.

“yep. We’re screwed.” Satoshi somberly said. He took out the straw and took a drink of with his lips.

The being in the bushes groaned as it started to move again. The bushes shook as the creature left the bush and headed for Ponyville, clearly unaware of his heading. It was leaving green blood behind it.

“This way, little ducklings. This way to the water.” Fluttershy said as the group neared a river. Bahamut yawned in boredom as he hung upside-down from a branch.

Fluttershy moved to the side, allowing the ducks to get to the water and swim away. “Good luck. And don’t forget me.” she called out in her own meek way.

“They’re ducks. They don’t remember anything past 2 minutes.” Bahamut said, passing it off. Fluttershy stared at him angrily. Bahamut squeaked in fear as his tail uncurled around the branch and fell into a bush. He heard stories about Fluttershy’s stare and is not one to be on the receiving end.

“oh. Oh dear. I’m so sorry, Bahamut.” Fluttershy apologized.

“ow. That hurt.” Bahamut groaned, rubbing his head as he walked out on three legs. What he didn’t notice was the green blood on the paw he was rubbing his head with.

“Oh my. Bahamut, you’re injured.” Fluttershy said in alarm.

“What? I feel fine.” he said. He put the paw on the ground, where he felt something weird. He looked down and saw that he stepped in green blood.

“see? You’re badly hurt. Now let me bandage that wound up and…”

“This isn’t my blood.” Bahamut abruptly said, interrupting F.S. she stopped and looked at him curiously. “my blood is white.” Bahamut pricked his paw and let some of his blood seep out. “See?” he said, holding it up.

“then that means there’s another animal out there, badly wounded.” Fluttershy meekly whined.

Bahamut hovered above where he landed in the bush. “and he’s losing a lot of it. There’s spots heading back to town.”

“We should help him before he does something foolish. Come on.” Fluttershy said with confidence, running in the direction of the blood trail.

“Wait up!” a peeved Bahamut exclaimed. He quickly dove into the water, washing any blood off of him, and flew after Fluttershy.

The creature limped towards Ponyville, nearing falling over in the process. His vision started to blur to dangerous levels.

“no… not now. I don’t want to die.” it groaned as it tried to stay awake. He coughed up blood and fell on his front legs. He shook as he tried to get up. “please…. Don’t let me die here.” he pleaded to whatever god or goddess there was.

He struggled to get up and headed again for town.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were playing a game of soccer with their schoolmates in the woods. Dinky kicked the ball hard into Tiara’s and Spoon’s goalpost.

“Yeah. Good going, Dink’s.” Applebloom cheered as she and the other crusaders dog-piled on her.

“lucky shot, that’s all.” Tiara grumblingly said.

“What’s wrong, Tiara? Sore loser?” Sweetie Belle joked. She and the others laughed. Tiara pouted and crossed her hoofs.

“where’d our ball go?” Dinky asked.

“Over there.” Scootaloo said, pointing towards the soccer ball, right next to a tree far from them. “I got it.” she said, being the one on top. She jumped off and headed for the ball.

The other 2 Crusaders got off Dinky and helped her up.

Scootaloo got to the ball and grabbed it. She started back when she heard a groaning sound coming from the other side of the tree. It left for a few seconds, then came again. Curious, Scootaloo walked around to the other side and saw what was making that noise.

“Ahh!” she yelped, getting the attention of the kids. Scootaloo leaned in for a closer look. “What is that?” she wondered, looking at the black insect-like pony.

The kids gathered around it. It was badly beaten and bloody all over. It wheezed and shivered with every breath and it was barely able to keep it’s eyes open. It barely opened it’s eyes to see the kids gathering around him. It closed it’s eyes and lowered it’s head as exhaustion overtook him and slipped him into unconsciousness.

“hey. Hey!” Scootaloo called out to the unknown thing. No response. “Help!” she called out. “we need help. Someone’s badly hurt here! Someone, Help!”

Bahamut and Fluttershy followed the trail of blood to town. “the fact it came this far having lost all that blood is nothing short of commendable.” Bahamut pointed out.

The 2 arrived just as Scootaloo found the badly beaten creature and her friends started gathering around it. “…hurt here! Someone, Help!” Scootaloo called out.

Bahamut and Fluttershy ran up to the girls. Bahamut panted heavily as he stopped flying and comically fell into a bush. “What happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“we don’t know. We were just playing a game of soccer when Scootaloo found this guy badly injured.” Applebloom explained.

Bahamut poked his head out of the bush and shook any leaves off of his horns. “So, what is that thing?”

“It’s a Changeling.” Fluttershy gasped.

Twilight and Spike walked though the markets, heading back to the library. Spike was carrying some boxes in his arms while Twilight carried bags of groceries with her magic.

“Again, sorry I was late, Twi. Ash had me distracted with something.” Spike apologized yet again for the umpteenth time.

“and I said I already forgave you, Spike. Besides, I needed to ask Big Mac something so the delay was quite welcome.” Twilight said.

“what did you need to ask Big Mac? Just out of curiosity, you know.”

“needed some help moving that bookcase in the basement. Remember?”

“oh right. The steel one. Still don’t know why that’s in the library.”

“neither do I, but I figure that with his strength and my magic, we should finally be able to move it.” she said with authority and her eyes closed. Not seeing where she was going, she walked into somepony and fell on her butt. “sorry. I was…” she looked up and saw the stallion she ran into at the Summer Sun celebration.

“hey. Look who it is? Small world after all.” the ice-blue stallion with black hair joked.

“Halo. Surprise, surprise.” Twi chuckled.

“un… who is this?” Spike asked, looking from behind the boxes.

Halo was surprised by the appearance of the dragon. “What’s this? A dragon?” he asked with his calm british accent.

“yeah. Spike. I raised him since he was just a egg. We’ve been like brother and sister ever since.” she explained as Halo began looking Spike over.

“un…….. Twi, who’s this kook?” Spike angrily asked.

“Spike!” Twi exclaimed in anger. “This is Halo’s Light. I bumped into him at the Summer Sun Celebration.”

“okay, but who IS he?”

Twi was going to answer but stopped before she could mutter a word. “huh. Guess I didn’t really ask that.”

Halo didn’t listen but instead continued to look Spike over. “amazing. A Dragon raised by a pony and capable of basic speech. Fascinating.”

Spike rolled his eyes in anger. “listen, bub. Think you can stop doing this? Feeling really uncomfortable here.”

“Oh. Sorry. My bad. The name is Halo’s Light. I am a researcher for the Royal Academy of Science at Canterlot. I came to Ponyville to examine the mysterious Everfree Forest.”

“The wha…” Twi shook her head. She couldn’t believe her ears. “the Royal Academy of Science?” she gleamed. “you work for the Royal Academy of Science?” she squealed.

“un…. Yeah?” Halo replied, not sure how this will go over.

“oh. Ahem. Sorry about that.” Twilight chuckled nervously. “just wanted to visit that place for oh so long.”

“Well, what kept ya?” Halo asked.

“my study’s with Princess Celestia. You may have heard of me? Twilight Sparkle?”

“Twili… oh, Hahaha. I didn’t know I made the acquaintance of Celestia’s star pupil and the Element of Magic.” Halo chuckled. Twi chuckled back and Spike rolled his eyes again.

“Twi. We’re busy with something!?” Spike growled as he walked off.

“oh, right. Sorry, Halo but I’m busy with something? Maybe we can get together sometime.” Twi said as she turned to leave.

“sure. Know this place called Sugarcube Corner? I’ll be there tonight at 6. Maybe we can talk more there?”

“Sure. No prob.” Twi replied. The 2 went their separate ways. Twi looked back at Halo and moaned. “man, Halo is so dreamy. His eyes… OH, they send shivers down my spine…” Spike rolled his eyes in distress. This was going to be a looooooong day. “… and that voice. *purrs* momma like.” Spike looked at her with a freaked out look in his eyes. “What? Oh, it’s like your crush on Rarity. Don’t give me that look.” she retorted as she walked away faster.

“but I never purred at someone.” Spike muttered as he tried to catch up.

The Changeling rested in Fluttershy’s bed, sleeping soundly. He was bandaged and healed thanks to Fluttershy. He was still unconscious but he could tell his wounds were taken care of. Fluttershy smiled and headed downstairs to meet with Bahamut and the fillies who were there.

“You know, we should really tell someone about that Changeling.” Bahamut said, breaking the silence. “he could get better help and…”

“not a good idea, B.” Scootaloo said. “these things aren’t exactly popular with the grown-ups. If people learn that a Changeling’s in town, they would want him gone.”

“Really? They’re that bad?”

“from what we saw after the wedding, not very.” Applebloom said. “still, we should probably tell Applejack and the others about this.”

“no. I don’t want anyone knowing about him till he’s better. If Everypony learned about him now, they would throw him in the dungeon no matter how he is. Or worse, we could get thrown into a dungeon.” Fluttershy explained. “so, please, let’s keep this a secret.”

“So what? You want us to keep a deadly monster a secret? Fat chance! We‘re taking this to the authorities.” Tiara exclaimed. She and Spoon headed for the door but were blocked by Fluttershy.

“uh-oh. Everyone duck and cover.” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. Bahamut was confused but was pulled down behind a couch by the Crusaders.

“Ow! What was that for?” Bahamut exclaimed.

“Trust me. You don’t want to see this.” Sweetie Belle said, leaving Bahamut confused with no explanation.

“I asked nicely to keep the wounded Changeling upstairs a secret from the town and you’re gonna go and tell Everypony anyway?”

“and why should we keep this a secret?” Spoon retorted.

“cause I’ll tell both your mothers that you’ve been treating poor Dinky Hooves very badly at school for her mother having weird eyes.” Fluttershy exclaimed, giving the 2 her trademark Stare. Tiara and Spoon gulped. They heard of the Stare before and how it turned a Dragon and a Cockatrice into sissies.. “So, I’m asking nicely once again. Don’t tell anyone that there’s a Changeling here! Got it!?”

Tiara and Spoon nodded while whimpering like a couple of cowardly dogs.

“Wait? That was it?” Bahamut exclaimed in confusion. “These 4 had me believing that the Stare was something dangerous.”

“well, you weren’t on the receiving end.” Scootaloo said.

Fluttershy scoffed and headed back upstairs. “wait wait wait. Quick question, FS.” Bahamut said, coming from behind the couch. “if the Changelings are as bad as everyone is making them out to be, why are you taking care of one upstairs?”

Fluttershy didn’t have to think hard for a answer. “why not? Just because someone is different doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get help.” she responded in her soft voice as she headed upstairs.

Bahamut grudgingly nodded in agreement. “makes sense.” he muttered. “but why are people so afraid of these Changelings, anyways?”

“guess it’s mostly due to the Backstory, I suppose.” Sweetie Belle said as she jumped over the couch. “they take the form of somepony you love and feed of the other’s love for the one you replaced. They really didn’t gain any popularity points when their queen tried to take control of Equestria during Twilight’s Brother’s Wedding.”

“That would do it.” Bahamut said.

Fluttershy returned to her room to see the Changeling moving violently in his sleep, groaning in fear as he dreamed a bad dream.

“oh dear.” Fluttershy meekly said as she flew over to the Changeling. “it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe now.” she softly said as she calmed him down.

The Changeling calmed down and was able to crack open his eyes. He saw the most beautiful mare he ever saw looking down on him as the light hit her though a open window. “oh. Thank goodness. You’re awake.” she sighed with relieve. What’s your name?” she softly asked.

The Changeling barely had any energy to move, much less talk. But, though some stroke of luck, he was able to mutter something. “M-mirr…”

“Myrrh?” a confused Fluttershy asked.

“Mirror’s…… Edge…….” he weakly said. He slipped back into unconsciousness as Fluttershy looked at him lovingly, like a mother to her child.

“Mirror’s Edge? That’s a unique name.” Fluttershy said. She flew over to her bathroom sink and soaked a washcloth. She went over to Edge and placed the washcloth over his forehead. “don’t worry, Mr. Mirror’s Edge. I’ll keep you safe.” Fluttershy calmly and lovingly said.